The number of homes for sale in Regina is at an all-time high, and they’re ripening on the vine. But sellers aren’t budging much when it comes to price.

Listings in the city reached a record high for October, with 1,444 homes up for sale as the month came to a close — a pattern for much of 2017, according to the most recent report from the Association of Regina Realtors.

Meanwhile, sales numbers in and around the city dropped to their lowest level since 2008.

It took an average of 61 days to sell the houses that did change hands in Regina — the longest average listing-to-sale time in the last decade. Still, the average sale price for the month dropped by only one per cent.

All of this could be the consequence of overbuilding and a lack of pressure on both buyers and sellers, according to industry professionals.

The relative price stability in the city may be the result of a diversified economy, according to John T. C. Bell, a 38-year veteran Regina real estate agent with Royal LePage Regina Realty.

“People still have jobs,” Bell said, noting that because many people selling homes are employed, they don’t feel pressured to sell at lower prices. The same lack of pressure fuels longer, listing-to-sale times, he said.

On the other side of the coin, Bell feels that the sluggish provincial economy has ushered in what he terms “buyer uncertainty.”

“They’re maybe just being a little more careful and waiting to purchase when they know they can afford it,” he said.

Furthermore, the glut of houses on the market takes pressure off buyers to commit to a sale because they feel prices might soon decrease, according to Rob Nisbett, co-owner of RE/MAX Crown Real Estate.

“It’s kind of human nature,” he said.

Although prices are on the decline, if only slightly, Nisbett doesn’t think any great price collapse is coming.

“Regina — you can go back historically — we don’t see big oscillations in price as you see in other major cities.”

This is because some other markets are more centred on a single industry, he said, such as in Calgary where the downturn in oil prices caused widespread job loss.

Largely, the Regina market is saturated with what might be classified as first-time-buyers’ homes as a result of mortgage “stress testing,” Nisbett said.

Stress testing is imposed by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), Canada’s federal banking regulator, and forces some borrowers seeking insured mortgages (typically, those with down payments of less than 20 per cent) to qualify at higher-than-current interest rates.

The measure ensures buyers can withstand future interest rate increases, Nisbett said. It also effectively reduces buying power, he added, and is causing some people to think, “Okay, maybe we’re going to sit back and we’re going to wait until we can afford what we really want.”

As buyers eventually accept stress testing, sales may increase and listing numbers may return to normal, he said.

However, OSFI announced last month that, come January, stress testing regulations will expand to also include those seeking uninsured mortgages.

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